On 4 August, the European Commission presented its 4th report on the monitoring of the EU visa-free regime requirements. The report also states that visa-free movement continues to bring positive economic, social and cultural benefits to EU Member States and partner countries, - Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia reports.
The report positively assesses the progress Georgia has made on border management with EU support, including under the Security, Accountability and Fight against Crime (SAFE) programme, and support by the Member States such as Latvia. The report welcomes the fact that a renewed working arrangement with Frontex was signed on 11 February 2021.
The report welcomes the amendments adopted by the Parliament of Georgia to the law regulating entry to and exit from the territory of Georgia. The report also commends Georgia for adopting 2021-2030 migration strategy and a methodology for a unified migration risk analysis system. Yet another important achievement is that Georgia became an observer at the European Migration Network (EMN) in March 2021.
According to the report, Georgia continued good cooperation Member States on return and readmission with Georgian authorities – an important component for maintaining visa-free travel with the EU.
Overall, Georgia continues to fulfil the visa liberalisation requirements and the Commission recommendations, including on maintaining a swift decrease in the number
of unfounded applications for international protection lodged by Georgian nationals though legislative amendments, cooperation with Frontex and other member states and a network of police attachés.
In 2020, the number of applications for international protection in Georgia decreased by 60% compared to 2019. The recognition rate increased from 4.1% in 2019 to 4.6% in 2020. In 2020 there were 30 irregular border crossings of Member States by Georgians, 10 times less than in 2019. In 2020, the number of Georgian nationals found to be irregularly staying in Member States decreased by 13%.
According to the report, Member States report in general good cooperation with Georgia in the field of security. Georgia continued cooperating with Europol and Eurojust and enhanced its fight against organised crime, drug crime, trafficking in human beings, cybercrime and other serious crimes. GRECO considered that most of its recommendations had been partly or fully implemented.
The European Commission highly appraises Georgia’s legislative reforms and international cooperation on the fight against terrorism. The report gives a brief survey of the fourth wave of judicial reform.
Based on the report, overall, Georgia continues to fulfil the visa liberalisation benchmarks and has taken action to address the Commission recommendations.
